U.S. Pat. No. 3,775,552 discloses a coaxial cable assembly that has become known as ribbon coax cable, primarily because the cable assembly has a long, flat and wide planar shape resembling the shape of a ribbon. The ribbon coax cable includes multiple coaxial conductors and multiple drain wires parallel to one another in the cable assembly. This type of cable includes a jacket of insulative material that can be stripped from the coaxial conductors and the drain wires to leave bare coaxial conductors and bare drain wires precisely located for termination to a standard connector block without a need for reorienting the coaxial conductors and the drain wires before such termination.
Not all connector blocks are constructed for connection solely to a ribbon coax cable. Some connector blocks are suitable for connection to multiple coaxial cables, wherein each of the cables is known as a discrete coax cable, as distinguished from ribbon coax cable. The discrete coax cable includes a single set of coaxial conductors and a single drain wire, also called a ground wire. One such connector block is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,875,877, and comprises, an insulative housing block, conductive signal contacts having wire connecting portions for connection to corresponding signal wires, and wire connecting portions of a ground bus for connection to corresponding ground wires. The housing block is suitable for connection to multiple discrete coax cables, wherein each of the cables includes a signal wire and a corresponding ground wire within a sheath, and each signal wire is encircled concentrically by a corresponding dielectric.
The ribbon coax cable known from U.S. Pat. No. 3,775,552, combines multiple coaxial conductors and multiple drain wires in a single cable to facilitate wire handling. A need exists to facilitate wire handling of discrete coax cables, for example, to orient multiple discrete coax cables for connection to a connector block, such as a housing block as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,875,877.
A discrete coax cable is more flexible than a ribbon coax cable, particularly because a ribbon coax cable resists being flexed in the flat plane of such a cable. However, a discrete coax cable is also flexible in response to torsion applied to twist the cable, such that the cable might extend lengthwise along its longitudinal axis, but the conductors of the cable will have been displaced in response to torsion applied to the cable, and will extend helically about the axis, instead of extending parallel to the axis. Thus, such conductors are said to be skewed. When the conductors of the discrete coax cable are skewed, their orientations about the axis will vary along a helix, and will require that they be located visually and then manually grasped and reoriented such that the conductors are positioned for alignment with corresponding wire connecting portions of a connector block, for example, a housing block as disclosed in the U.S. Pat. No. 4,875,877. Before the invention, the wires were reoriented by hand. The time consuming task of orienting the wires by hand is alleviated by the invention.